This invention is directed to a doll and constitutes an improvement of the doll disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,094,621 and 5,197,885, granted respectively on Mar. 10, 1992 and Mar. 30, 1993 to Joan Friedel.
The doll disclosed in the latter patents was developed to enable and encourage a user thereof to get in touch with that which is referred to in psychiatric literature as the "inner child." The doll included a hollow interior and a movable shelf upon which appropriate items could be placed and when the door to the inner chamber is closed, the shelf automatically dropped causing any of the items thereupon to similarly "disappear." The shelf could include a small "inner child" seated thereon or the "inner child" might be painted in the cavity, and in either case such an "inner child" represents the childhood past of the utilizer of the doll. Thus, the adult or child utilizing the doll could talk to his "inner child" and find comfort therefrom.
Though the doll of these patents is effective for the intended purposes thereof, the doll is too complex in operation and some of the objects ("icons") are sufficiently small to present questions of physical harm/damage if, for example, ingested. Accordingly, the doll of the present invention is an effort to maintain and perpetuate the "inner child" utilization thereof without disadvantages heretofore expressed, particularly in a doll which is virtually devoid of moving parts, yet is simplistic in design and operation.